A Day By the Green first appeared in 2010, when the members of Cold Harbour put together a lineup of bands located south of the Yarra River. The venue chosen for the event, the St Kilda Bowls Club was appropriate – immediately opposite the infamous Seaview Ballroom, epicentre of St Kilda’s smack-and-black punk rock scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The club’s publican was only too happy to help out; in the mid ‘80s, he’d run the Petersham Inn in Sydney, spiritual home of the Black Eye community that included Tex Perkins, Lachlan McLeod and Stu Spasm.
Sitting in the Drunken Poet in North Melbourne on a damp Saturday evening – with the dulcet tones of Spencer P Jones washing over the venue – Teluk and Holst are deservedly proud of the success of the A Day By the Green concept, and the lineup for this week’s eighth A Day By the Green in particular. “We’re pretty happy with this week’s line-up,” says Holst. “We’ve got Harry Howard and the NDE headlining, we’ve got Steve Lucas’s new band, Neon and Venom, Mercy Kills, Space Echo, Dial Me for Murder, Burn in Hell, who’re just back from Europe.” Other bands include the Dukes of Deliciousness, featuring the son of late Cosmic Psychos guitarist Robbie Watts, Seedy Jeezus (whose wild lead singer, Lex, designed the poster for the event) and even an MC, Triple R’s Tony Biggs.
While the crowd at each A Day By the Green retains its share of crusty old St Kilda types, Teluk and Holst agree that the walk-in crowd is getting stronger. “Because we’re up to number eight now, I think we’re starting to attract people from outside that St Kilda scene,” Teluk says. “When we started off, we were only ever going to do one, and it was just to showcase St Kilda bands. But we’re still finding great bands to feature – there’s just so many great bands in this city.” And there’s no shortage of bands looking to join in. “We do have to knock bands back, but that’s only because there’s not enough room to have them all – we could have two dozen bands if we had the space, there’s just so much good music to be heard,” Holst says. “But we know we to have to keep it fresh, so we do have to keep mixing it up,” Teluk says. “We have friends who want to be on the bill, and we do our best to get them on, and we also have bands that ring us up and want to play, but we’ve never even heard of them.”
As with all previous A Day By the Green festivals, Cold Harbour will appear on the bill, though this time slightly earlier in the proceedings. The regular appearance of the festival organisers on the bill has been the occasional source of annoyance for other bands trying to join the lineup. “We get accused of nepotism because we’re always on the bill,” Holst says. “Which is strange, because it’s our festival – that’s why it clearly says ‘Cold Harbour presents’,” Teluk adds. “Some people seem to not like the fact that we’re always there, but, well, there’s no Ozzfest without Ozzy Osbourne,” laughs Holst.
Both Holst and Teluk are keen for Cold Harbour to return to the studio and complete some new recordings. “It’s been hard with Evan being away, but now he’s back, it’d be great to do some new stuff,” Teluk says. “We have written some stuff while he’s been away, but we’ve also been quite busy playing gigs.” “There’s a few half-finished ideas we’d like to get back to,” adds Holst. “We’ve been doing a few acoustic gigs, which has actually been really good,” says Teluk.
Back onto general matters, and it’s not out of the question that a compilation record could be created to celebrate the tenth Day By the Green. “We certainly haven’t talked about doing anything like that, but maybe we could for the tenth one,” Teluk says. “It’s not a bad idea.” There are other possible augmentations, if only still in embryonic state. “I’ve thought about doing a two-day event, and I’ve even thought about doing it at Luna Park,” Holst laughs. And while the event generally recovers its costs, suggestions that it may be raking in the cash are misguided. “I think some people think that we make a lot of money from it,” Teluk says, “but that’s definitely not the case.” “We’re definitely a non-profit organisation,” Holst smiles.
But for now, A Day By the Green is a simple celebration, and proud assertion of St Kilda’s music scene. “The St Kilda music scene has copped it left, right and centre over the past few years,” Holst says. “And we’re just trying to put something back, and reminding people of what’s there.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
